Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

stark naked

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.87 in modern English

Syllables: stark -naked
IPA

19

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Completely naked.

noun

Archaic; Slang; Uncountable

Example Sentences

""Give us a glass of 'stark naked,' Job! This plaguey fog's well nigh choked me," said Rube, spluttering and coughing, and vituperating it."

Etymology

From Middle English stert naked (steort nakt, sternaked, star naked); the first element is from Old English steort (“tail”). The change from "start-naked" to "stark-naked" was most likely by folk etymology due to a misinterpretation of the phrase as being a way of saying "starkly naked" ("strongly naked, harshly naked"). The opposite change has shifted buck naked to butt naked in colloquial modern English.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: stert naked, steort

Usage

Synonyms

strip me naked nude bare-assed bare-ass in the altogether in the buff in the raw raw peeled naked as a jaybird

Questions

What does stark naked mean?: Completely naked.
Where does stark naked come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce stark naked

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